Key Dates

Related Announcements

• November 24, 2023 - Competing Revisions to Existing NIH Single Project Research Grants and Cooperative Agreements (Clinical Trial Optional). See NOFO PA-23-317. 

Issued by

National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI)

National Institute on Aging (NIA)

Purpose

This Notice of Special Interest (NOSI) seeks to stimulate epidemiological research by expanding recruitment and follow-up in existing National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) longitudinal cohorts to include participants aged 65 years and older. This expansion is pivotal in deepening our understanding of age-specific risk factors and long-term health outcomes, and it reflects NHLBI and NIA’s unwavering commitment to advancing comprehensive longitudinal studies and delivering crucial insights into healthy aging.

NHLBI invites competing revision applications to existing NHLBI U24 grants that focus on enhancement of established longitudinal cohort studies by incorporating adults aged 65 years and older. This strategic expansion will:

• Advance Cardiometabolic and Pulmonary Research: Allow for the identification and analysis of cardiovascular diseases, such as atrial fibrillation, heart failure, stroke, and chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases, which are more prevalent in older adults and significantly impact long-term health outcomes.
• Expand Aging Research: Address key areas of aging research, including mobility, physical function, and frailty, as well as identifying protective factors across multiple domains that are essential for maintaining good health and quality of life across the lifespan, but have been understudied in relation to cardiometabolic and pulmonary health.
• Strengthen the Understanding of Chronic Conditions: Enhance knowledge of chronic conditions prevalent in late adulthood by exploring unique risk factors and biological mechanisms. This can also support the timely collection of cardiovascular events, leading to more insightful analyses within an existing longitudinal cohort study.

Additionally, this expansion of participant age to include 65 years and older will support innovative research on cognitive decline, mild cognitive impairment and dementia including Alzheimer's Disesase (AD) and AD-related dementias (ADRD), offering opportunities to explore the relationship between cardiometabolic, pulmonary health and cognitive function in older adults across diverse communities. It will also assess the impact of social determinants of health, providing insights into the unique challenges and vulnerabilities faced by aging populations, including various racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic groups. This age expansion will also encourage research on the biological processes that determine rates and heterogeneity of aging, and how external factors might interact with these mechanisms. Consistent with existing NIH practices and applicable law, NIH does not use the race, ethnicity, or sex of prospective participants in the application review process or funding decisions.

The overarching goal of this age expansion is to integrate biological, genetic, lifestyle, behavioral, environmental, and sociocultural factors through interdisciplinary research. By examining how these factors uniquely influence health outcomes in older adults, this initiative will uncover critical age-related patterns and inform the development of targeted, culturally sensitive health strategies to improve clinical outcomes and promote health equity for these populations.

Program Description and Requirements

This competitive revision NOSI is designed to provide support to funded investigators to expand their currently funded longitudinal cohort studies by expanding the recruitment and follow-up of participants aged 65 years and older, while also exploring the potential to add new assessments involving cohort participants across all age group. These assessments aim to explore factors, processes, and contextual variables that contribute to understanding long-term health outcomes and age-specific risk factors, particularly those related to cardiometabolic, pulmonary diseases, and aging. 

Applicants may propose new activities that are beyond the original scope of the parent project. These activities should align with the project’s goals of examining how various factors, such as cardiometabolic, pulmonary health, mobility, physical function, and cognitive function, impact aging-related outcomes. The proposed research should remain consistent with the initial objectives of the parent study, regardless of whether data has already been collected or is still forthcoming within the original specific aims.

Applications considered non-responsive to this NOSI will not be reviewed. The following will be considered non-responsive:

• Research projects that do not use the U24 mechanism in a NHLBI-funded cohort study. 
• Research projects that do not propose recruitment expansion of participants aged 65 and older.
• Research projects that propose new clinical trials.

Applicants are strongly encouraged to contact the NHLBI Program Officer on their parent grant and the Scientific Contact staff listed by scientific areas in Section VII prior to submission of a competitive revision application to ensure that the content area proposed is consistent with the intent of this NOSI.

Multi-year competitive revisions are available for parent projects that have at least two (2) full years of active funding (excluding no-cost extension periods) remaining at the time of submission. The number of years for the revision must be within the project period of the parent award. 

Application and Submission Information

Applications for this initiative must be submitted using the following opportunity or its subsequent reissued equivalent.

• PA-23-317- Competing Revisions to Existing NIH Single Project Research Grants and Cooperative Agreements (Clinical Trial Optional)

All instructions in the How to Apply - Application Guide and PA-23-317 must be followed, with the following additions:

•  Application Due Date(s) – December 16, 2024, by 5:00 PM local time of applicant organization.
•  For funding consideration, applicants must include “NOT-HL-24-029” (without quotation marks) in the Agency Routing Identifier field (box 4B) of the SF424 R&R form. Applications without this information in box 4B will not be considered for this initiative.
• Requests may be for more than one year of support. 
•  Only existing NHLBI U24 awardees are eligible to apply.
• In order to expedite review, applicants are requested to notify the IC by emailing one of the Scientific/Research Contacts listed below when the application has been submitted. Please include the NOFO number and title, PD/PI name, and title of the application

Evaluation Process

Submitted applications must follow the guidelines of the IC that funds the parent award. Applications will be evaluated for scientific and technical merit by (an) appropriate Scientific Review Group(s) convened by the NHLBI, using the criteria described in PA-23-317. Applications will proceed to the Advisory Council of the parent award for a second-round review before the final selection for award.

Although NHLBI is not listed as a Participating Organization in all the NOFOs listed above, applications for this initiative will be accepted.

Applications nonresponsive to terms of this NOSI will be withdrawn from consideration for this initiative.

Inquiries

Please direct all inquiries to the Scientific/Research, Peer Review, and Financial/Grants Management contacts in Section VII of the listed notice of funding opportunity.

Scientific/Research Contact(s)

Stephanie Marquez, M.P.H.
National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI)
Division of Cardiovascular Sciences
Email: stephanie.marquez@nih.gov

Ye Yan, Ph.D.
National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI)
Division of Cardiovascular Sciences
Email: ye.yan@nih.gov

Yuling Hong, M.D.,M.Sc.,Ph.D. 
National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI)
Division of Cardiovascular Sciences 
Email: yuling.hong@nih.gov

Damali Martin, Ph.D., M.P.H.
National Institute on Aging (NIA)
Division of Neuroscience 
Email: martinda@mail.nih.gov

Financial/Grants Management Contact(s)

Julie Delgado
National Heart Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI)
Email: julie.delgado@nih.gov